The Aces\u2019 regular-season finale against the Los Angeles Sparks on Thursday may seem like reigning WNBA MVP A\u2019ja Wilson\u2019s last chance to make her case for a repeat.<\/p>\n
The seventh-year forward may have already clinched the award for the fourth time, however.<\/p>\n
Wilson, 29, has led the Aces (29-14) on a massive turnaround. The team is 17-3 since the WNBA\u2019s All-Star break in July and has won 15 straight. She leads the league in points (23.4), rebounds (9.9) and blocks (2.3) per game.<\/p>\n
Even longtime ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith, who rarely discusses the WNBA, called the MVP race in Wilson\u2019s favor Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me say this, ladies and gentlemen: The Las Vegas Aces lost by 53 points on their home court to the Minnesota Lynx. \u2026 They ain\u2019t lost a game since,\u201d Smith said on the show \u201cFirst Take.\u201d \u201cAnd this woman, A\u2019ja Wilson, who\u2019s already a three-time league MVP, is about to get another one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson has scored at least 30 points 13 times this season, a league record for a single <\/a>campaign<\/a>. She also became the first player in WNBA history to have 30 points and 20 rebounds in a game<\/a> in the Aces\u2019 win over the Connecticut Sun on Aug. 10.<\/p>\n Now the favorite<\/p>\n Betting odds reflect how the MVP race has shifted in Wilson\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n She entered the season as the second choice to win the award at the Westgate SuperBook behind Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark, but Lynx forward Napheesa Collier soon became the overwhelming favorite.<\/p>\n Collier is second in the WNBA in points per game (23), eighth in rebounds per game (7.4) and fifth in blocks per game (1.6). She\u2019s a huge reason why Minnesota (33-10) has the league\u2019s best record.<\/p>\n The odds have flipped recently, however. Wilson is now the -900 favorite to win a record fourth WNBA MVP award, while Collier is the 6-1 underdog.<\/p>\n Aces coach Becky Hammon has spoken about the race several times in the last few weeks, and gave her longest and most passionate comments yet during a pregame news conference Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not who\u2019s the best on their team or anything like that. This is who\u2019s the best in the league. This is the league MVP. So please stop all that silliness talking about who\u2019s more impactful on their team. By the way, (Wilson) wins that argument, too. We were 1-3 without her. She impacts both sides of the game,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cNobody cares about your feelings and your opinions. Math doesn\u2019t lie. The numbers are the numbers. I\u2019m sorry if you don\u2019t like it. And whether she\u2019s winning her 12th MVP \u2014 which she very well could in her career \u2014 or her first, you don\u2019t crown someone at the beginning of the year and then walk it back so that it fits your narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n Hammon has done a lot of the talking for Wilson in recent weeks. Wilson has then provided the performances to back those words up.<\/p>\n Collier was still the -900 favorite to win her first MVP award at the Westgate SuperBook heading into her team\u2019s game against the Aces on Sept. 4, while Wilson was the 6-1 second choice.<\/p>\n Hammon acknowledged at the time that Wilson and Collier were the league\u2019s \u201ctwo best players,\u201d but asserted that Wilson was the most dominant.<\/p>\n The matchup between the two sides supported that argument. Wilson had 31 points and eight rebounds in a 97-87 <\/a>win<\/a>, while Collier had 12 points and six rebounds.<\/p>\n Playoff picture<\/p>\n The Lynx remain the even-money favorite to win the WNBA title. The Aces are tied with the New York Liberty (26-17) as the +350 second choice.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s postseason path is still unclear. The Atlanta Dream (30-14) are a half game ahead of the Aces for the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, but the Aces have the tiebreaker and a game in hand. That means they\u2019ll clinch the No. 2 seed with a win Thursday.<\/p>\n The Sparks (21-22), led by former Aces players Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby, were eliminated from the playoffs Tuesday but could still look to play spoiler against their old team.<\/p>\n The Aces won\u2019t know their first-round opponent until after Thursday\u2019s game. Possibilities include the Indiana Fever (24-20), who will be without Clark the rest of the season due to a groin injury, the Golden State Valkyries (23-20) and the Seattle Storm (23-21).<\/p>\n The Aces\u2019 first playoff game will be Sunday at Michelob Ultra Arena, according to the team.<\/p>\n Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com<\/a>. Follow @CallieJLaw<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Aces\u2019 regular-season finale against the Los Angeles Sparks on Thursday may seem like reigning WNBA MVP A\u2019ja…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-148142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}